Christ the King's Terrel Hunt ran for two touchdowns and thre for one in a loss to Xavier.Damion Reid

Chris Higgins was telling his defense not to expect a pass from Xavier on a key third-down play in the fourth quarter. The Knights had passed just once prior in the game and had moved the ball well on the ground all afternoon.

“I wouldn’t have,” Higgins said. “I would have ran the ball and ran the clock out. It was only a couple yards. I was hoping to stop them.”

Instead Xavier running back Brent Scardapane threw a pass to quarterback Nick Conte down the left sideline that turned into a 70-yard touchdown. It put the Royals down two scores in an eventual 27-20 loss to the visting Knights in a CHSFL Class AA-A game at Juniper Valley Park Saturday. The loss puts Xavier over CK and into second place in the division.

“That last touchdown killed us,” Higgins said.

The score came on a drive after quarterback Terrel Hunt, who threw for 136 yards and ran for 139, missed a chance to get the Royals even. As he burst through the line at the Xavier 6, he tried to the extend the ball for the goal line, but was stripped. Xavier recovered the fumble and still led 21-12 with 6:40 left in the game. Conte’s touchdown made it 28-12 with 2:30 remaining. Hunt’s 7-yard TD, set up by a 47-yard strike to Jayvaun Smyer got CK (5-3, 5-2) within eight with 1:25 left, but Xavier recovered the onside kick.

“If he crosses the plane first he is a hero,” Higgins said… “That’s why it’s called a risk.”

That’s exactly what Hunt, who had a 7-yard TD pass to Chris Hartney on the opening drive, did on fourth down from the 3-yard-line with no time left to put CK up 12-6 at the half. But Xavier (5-3, 5-2) quickly answer, with the play that bothered Higgins the most because of the timing. Scardapane (19 carries, 164 yards) took the Knights first play from scrimmage 67 yards for a score to give Xavier its first lead at 13-12.

Xavier’s blitzes made life difficult for Hunt in the pocket. They contained him, for the most part, and the pressure took away his ability to throw down field. The Royals played without starting center Chris Quadrino, who tore his meniscus two weeks ago. Hunt was picked off twice on passes that were tipped. The second helped set up Scardapane’s first TD run.

“There were a lot of turnovers, a lot of mistakes,” Hunt said. “They picked up on mistakes well.”

The Syracuse-bound senior knows his team is going to pick itself up heading into a possible playoff match-up with Kellenberg. CK lost its first game of the season last week to Archbishop Stepinac and he felt they needed to respond better.